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Monday, June 24, 2013

Lazy, dead easy lunch: Quinoa fried rice

I'm on a three week break, and today is the first official day. I was feeling lazy for lunch, and thought of what I could find in the pantry. I'm sure everyone has those days; you just fish out whatever you can find in the fridge: leftovers, frozen fish, frozen veggies because you're just too lazy to whip up something that requires too much dish-washing and chopping. So, I decided to make a simple, yet nutritious lunch!

There's still the quinoa craze around, and I only discovered it last year. As a supergrain, it is full of amino acids that we need (we are what we eat!), it contains more fibre than most other grains which means = feeling fuller for longer = win win for over-eaters like me. And it's really easy and quick to cook. For every 1 cup of quinoa, cook it with 2 cups of water. Cook until it has absorbed all the water, roughly 15-20 minutes?

So, a simple quinoa meal that you can take to work, or eat lazily at home is quinoa fried rice.

A lot of people argue that it's really hard to eat healthily, as it is expected to only eat 'carrots and celery sticks'. I say, NO, eating healthily can be as creative and delicious as you want. Remember the oat banana bread that has absolutely no refined sugar, butter or oil I made? Although, it may seem sort of ironic that I'm raving about healthy food, because this is a blog that mainly focuses on desserts, (sometimes outrageously fattening like the Baked brownie. p.s I use too many parentheses), I believe that you can have a treat every now and then. One slice of cake does not make you fat. However, if you eat one whole chocolate cake like the boy in Mathilda in that infamous scene, or a huge slice everyday, you're harming your body and consequently put on more weight.

So just dig up any left overs like meat, vegetables etc and using frozen vegetables are really convenient too!

Quinoa fried rice

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

2 eggs

Small strips of bacon or ham

1 onion, diced into cubes

1 red capsicum, sliced into small pieces

Bunch of mushrooms, sliced

Small handful of green beans, chopped

Frozen vegetables (peas, corn etc. Doesn't have to be thawed, but it would be easier to cook faster)

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

Method

1. Thoroughly wash the quinoa before using, to get rid of the as the saponin covers the seeds, and needs to be rinsed to get rid of it. Otherwise, you will have bitter quinoa. Once thoroughly rinsed, put it in a pot and combine with 2 cups of water. Cook until all of the water has absorbed, about 10-20 minutes, depending on how high your heat is.

2. Heat a large pan with about 2 tablespoons of oil (I used sunflower). Fry the 2 eggs, but don't over cook it. Once done, put the eggs aside on another plate and slice them into strips.

2. Add another tablespoon of oil, and cook the onions until slightly brown. Add the bacon or ham.

3. Then add the red capsicum, mushrooms and the frozen vegetables.

4. Add the quinoa and mix in the soy sauce and fish sauce. Stir to get an even coating of the sauce.